updated 11:35 am EST, Wed December 22, 2010

Product already blocked in new sales

Apple is taking a hard stance against Steve Jobs figurines being auctioned through eBay, one seller notes. The figures were briefly produced by a company called MIC Gadget until Apple pressure forced sales to end. Some of the few units to make it to buyers were put on eBay, with asking prices as high as $2,500.

One of the sellers informs that an auction of his was recently removed from eBay at Apple's request. Specifically, the person notes, he was told that the listing "violates a celebrity's right of publicity." He then started a new auction, but it has since already been halted.

Steve Jobs has sometimes taken a harsher attitude than most CEOs towards his depiction in the media. In 2005 the CEO had all Wiley books removed from Apple Stores after they published a single unauthorized biography, iCon. The executive is generally well-liked in the business press however, for instance having got a CEO of the Decade award from MarketWatch.

Is it real?

anyone's right

I understand the person was quoted, and maybe that person just used the wrong words, but just to be clear, it isn't a celebrities right of publicity, it's anyone's right to control their own image.

Although why it would be an issue if you are not a celebrity, is beyond me, but - I clarify for a reason, it doesn't matter that Jobs is a CEO and not an actor - we all have this right (assuming you live in a jurisdiction that has this right - not every state has specifically a law on the books, but California and NY certianly do)....

and for that reason, nothing to see here, if they wanted to use his likeness, they should have paid up - they didn't, they were wrong, remove the listing from ebay.

I'm not so sure

that eBay did the right thing. Depictions of celebrities including actual photographs (sometimes nude) and caricatures are used all the time to sell print media, or drive internet traffic. Why would selling a figurine be any different. As far as I know, Steve Jobs is not a trademark, the way, say Barbie, would be.